Since the 2022 Russian war against Ukraine started nearly three months ago, awareness and appreciation of Ukrainian culture has grown hugely around the world.  This week saw the annual celebration of the vyshyvanka – a word that many people would have come across this year for the first time.

The word comes from the vyshyvaty – to embroider.  Decorative embroidery is a significant element of traditional Ukrainian crafts.  The vyshyvanka is normally a plain shirt or blouse with colourful embroidery often with elements typical of a particular part of the country.  The first illustration here shows various patterns from just one village.

Cambridge was in the news this week thanks to the creation of a giant vyshyvanka created by a Ukrainian refugee living with her friend and the founder of Mums4Ukraine.  A screenshot from the BBC article about the enormous shirt and one of the Mums4Ukraine poster for their vyshyvanka event held on Thursday are below.

The image at the start of this post comes from O.L. Kulʹchyt͡sʹka’s Narodnyĭ odi͡ah zakhidnykh oblasteĭ Ukraïny : zi zbirky Nat͡sionalʹnoho muzei͡u u Lʹvovi imeni Andrei͡a Sheptyt͡sʹkoho : alʹbom-kataloh (Folk clothing from the western regions of Ukraine : from the collection of the Andriĭ Sheptytsʹkyĭ National Museum in Lʹviv : an album-catalogue), a 310-page 2018 publication.  Other books of interest for readers of Ukrainian include:

• Ukraïnsʹkyĭ narodnyĭ odi︠a︡h : “XVII” – pochatku “XIX” st. v akvareli︠a︡kh I︠U︡. Hlohovsʹkoho / avtory ta upori︠a︡dnyky D.P. Krvavych, H.H. Stelʹmashchuk. (1998)
• Istorii︠a︡ ukraïnsʹkoho kosti︠u︡ma / Tamara Nikolai︠e︡va. (1996)
• Ukraïnsʹka narodna vyshyvka : zakhidni oblasti URSR / R.V. Zakharchuk-Chuhaĭ. (1988)
• Ukraïnsʹka vyshyvka / Teti︠a︡na Kara-Vasylʹi︠e︡va, Alla Chornomoret︠s︡ʹ. (2002)

Mel Bach